


For Sale: Wedding Tuxedo, Never Worn

by itsgameover



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, blink and you'll miss it sulay, xiuho are the bestest of friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27211138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsgameover/pseuds/itsgameover
Summary: Minseok didn’t ask for any of this to happen, but he is glad it did. Now Jongdae is in his life and that’s more than good.
Relationships: Kim Jongdae | Chen/Kim Minseok | Xiumin
Comments: 18
Kudos: 62





	For Sale: Wedding Tuxedo, Never Worn

**Author's Note:**

> this was originally written for the EXO Title Fest but apparently that fest is d e a d, so you have my work for free.  
> hope you enjoy it <3

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

The “buy-and-sell, seoul metropolitan area” page mocks him, opened in the browser of his computer, flashy colors making him sick. It’s a tacky website, but he got a good couch and microwave from there and no one has ever reported scams from sellers on the site, so he can’t exactly complain. If he raises his eyes he can see in the reflection of the tiny mirror above his desk the shape of the black zipped bag, hanging there like a shadow, looming over his very soul. 

Minseok takes a sip of his energy drink and takes a big breath before starting to type. 

‘ _ For Sale: Wedding Tuxedo, Never Worn. Medium size. Cufflinks not included.   
_ _ Call this number for price _

For a man who claims to be over it, the rage he feels and the subsequent sadness are not normal behaviours. 

Minseok closes the computer and sighs, finishes his drink and mindlessly tosses it towards the trash can next to the desk before rising to his feet and dragging himself across the two meters that separate him from his bed. It’s his third consecutive night going to bed without eating, it’s fine, everything it’s fine. 

It’s not like this; it should be the six-months anniversary of his wedding night. It’s not like the love of his life left him a day before the wedding. Why couldn’t she have told him before? Why did she have to wait until the very last moment to say such devastating things?

She came to his room in the middle of the night, dress clutched against her chest, hands shaking, crying that she couldn’t do it. She wasn’t ready, she didn’t know if they were a good match, she couldn’t bear the thought of being a housewife. And no matter what Minseok said, no matter how hard he tried to convince her that all of those things weren’t true, that no one would submit her to his will, that they had been happy together for years, she wouldn’t change her mind. 

That day, Ahn Sohee left with a white dress in the back of her car, tears in her eyes and a piece of Minseok’s very soul. 

Six months it took for him to decide to put on sale the tuxedo. In those six months he survived thanks to his business, a tiny store dedicated to books and art supplies, weekly kickboxing sessions, kicking his rage away, and Junmyeon, who was meant to be his Best Man and maybe even godfather of his children if he ever had any. Now, Minseok will have none of those things, but he still has Junmyeon and that man is a life saver. 

myeonnie:  
i’ll kick you in the shins if you skip dinner tonight  
m e:  
sorry cap, i’m already in bed  
myeonnie:  
minseok for fuck’s sake  
me:  
i was too lazy, tomorrow ill eat, i promise  
myeonnie:   
did you put the tuxedo on the website?  
me:  
y ep, not sure if anyone would want that cursed thing anyways  
myeonnie:   
i’m sure it will sell fast, it’s a good fit for a good looking man

What a shame Minseok couldn’t be that good looking man. 

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

If he is being fair, he has other support aside from Junmyeon (not taking value out of his great ways to keep Minseok from rotting inside his apartment). Sometimes his sister, living in China, calls him and asks him about his day, tells him a thousand anecdotes from her day to day life and invites him to her house for the summer. She is an angel, but Minseok is in no condition to travel and meet her fiance and help her organize a wedding. He can’t even get himself to think of a wedding. 

Another form of support is the little kid with boxy smiles and cool lingo that shows up in his art store every other day. 

“Good morning, Mr Kim!” Baekhyun exclaims, as if the bell didn’t announce his presence enough. He is wearing a bright green jacket with white cuffs, a white shirt and loose jeans. Dressed like that he looks a little bit older than fifteen, too bad that his baby face betrays him. 

“Good morning, Baekhyun” he salutes back “How’s your mother?”

“Pretty good!” the boy replies, dropping his backpack on top of the counter “She sends you this. It’s kimchi fried rice and kimbap! She is trying a new recipe, don’t know why tho” he shrugs, resting his elbows on the clear white surface

“Seems nice, will try it out for lunch” Minseok places the matching blue plastic containers under the counter and focuses again on the boy “What can I do for you?”

The kids' eyes light up. He is such a precious boy, with great art ambition. His mother fully supports his hedonistic endeavours and even enrolled him in course after course of different art methods and styles. Right now, he is pretty focused on lifelike drawings. And he is pretty good at it. He even gifted Minseok one of his best pieces, a cat with crystal clear eyes sitting on top of the statue of a young maiden. It’s pretty and it’s sweet and if Baekhyun ever becomes famous, Minseok will be able to sell that for lots of money. Everyone wins. 

“Thank you, Mr Kim” Baekhyun bows softly, after picking up his backpack and placing all his purchases inside 

“Send your mom my regards!” The boy nods and runs across the street right into the apartment complex full of tiny and neat apartments. Minseok himself almost bought a house in one of those nice buildings. 

He had discussed it with Sohee, first a tiny apartment, then a bigger one and then a house if they had kids. She wanted to move to the countryside. Minseok, born and raised between concrete and asphalt, was willing to drop his whole life in the big bustling city for her. What a fool he was. 

After the failed wedding he had texted her every single morning, every single night, asking if she could talk, if she wanted to talk. Sohee didn’t reply for a week and then she told him she had no time to talk, needed time to process her emotions, needed to calm down. She asked him for time to think, he conceded it. They never spoke to each other again. Since then, Minseok barely uses his phone. If he is not chatting with Junmyeon, that thing is just a lifeless plastic lump taking space in his back pocket. 

So it’s pretty surprising to feel the phone vibrate. Considering the time, before 1pm, Junmyeon is still working. His sister always calls him on weekends and none of his other friends/acquaintances call him. This is fishy. 

He fishes the phone from his pocket and checks the ID. Unknown number. Even more fishy. In the end, he picks up the call.

“Hello?” he says

“Hi, is this Minseok?” a warm seemingly masculine voice asks. 

“Yes it is, who is it?” Minseok is still highly suspicious of this individual who knows his name.

“My name is Jongdae I saw your add of a wedding tux”

Minseok’s mouth opens wide as he leans on the counter “Oh, right, the tux…” a pause, the person on the other side says nothing so Minseok scoffs “Would you like to see it personally?”

“Yes! That’d be wonderful! Where can I see you?” 

They agree on a little coffee shop two streets away from Minseok’s store and just a 15 minutes walk from his home. It’s a well visited place, just to ensure that neither of them are kidnappers or murderers. Safe, sane and consensual public yet private meeting.

Minseok would feel weird walking around with a long black bag that looks big enough to hold a human inside, but he has seen cosplayers in worse scenarios so he fears nothing but God and death. 

This man, Jongdae, apparently needed the tux with urgency, which would be weird except it’s early autumn and the weather is still nice enough that one could hold a last minute wedding. Perhaps this man is getting married in a week and forgot about the tuxedo or maybe he is attending a fancy event later in the day and his only good suit is stained. 

It’s better to imagine why this Jongdae may want the tuxedo instead of thinking of all the reasons his stupid monkey brain offers to keep it. It’s not like Minseok really wants to keep the suit, it’s his mind that insists that the memories the tuxedo holds are too dear to let go of it. ‘What memories?’ Minseok wants to ask himself, and the only answer that comes is ‘those of the time when you were happy’. He orders a black espresso and waits in sulking silence, sitting on the table farthest away from the door.

Five minutes later, a man walks into the coffee shop. It’s not a very tall man but he is slender, tiny waist accentuated by a tucked in black shirt, wavy raven hair and deep dark eyes that stare from side to side under thick dark eyebrows. And Minseok stares back at him when their eyes meet and then the stranger smiles, walking towards him. 

“Are you by any chance Kim Minseok?” When Minseok nods, the stranger’s smile widens even more “Oh, I’m Jongdae, pleasure to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, Jongdae,” Minseok answers, straightening in his place and putting on a small smile that hopefully pases as friendly instead of sullen. “How did you recognize me?”

“I saw the black bag and thought ‘it’s either the tuxedo man or a forensic doctor on his way to use a corpse bag’” he laughs to himself, tucking his chin and staring at Minseok through his long lashes “I actually don’t know the name of those bags…”

“I don’t know it either,” Minseok answers honestly, shrugging. “Anyway, I don’t know if it will fit you.”

Jongdae seems startled, as if he didn’t expect Minseok to go to the point so quickly. Minseok cringes internally, he doesn’t want to come out as unfriendly or rude, but he really wants to get rid of the tuxedo before he can take back the offer, run back to his house and cuddle the stupid tux until he falls asleep. 

But then, Jongdae’s smile is back, even if a little smaller, and he tilts his head while his eyebrows rise in question.

“Oh, how come so?” he says, staring at Minseok in a way that feels like he is seeing into the depths of his soul. Why do people like eye to eye contact so much? 

“The shoulders, we are not the same size” Minseok blurts out, finishing his coffee before he embarrasses himself by saying something like ‘you are not me, it could never fit you!’. 

“Ah, I see…” Jongdae bites his lower lip, seemingly thinking.

There is a moment of hesitation in between them, the noises of the people in the cafeteria moving on normally, like nothing abnormal is happening, like Minseok doesn’t feel a piece of him would be sold away. 

“Can I try it on?” Jongdae says, hastening to add. “The jacket, of course, I wouldn’t want to strip my pants right here” Minseok nods, laughing at the blush that creeps up the man’s cheeks. 

“Are you getting married?” he asks as he hands Jongdae the suit. 

“Me? God no, I’m a single pickle” Jongdae giggles. “It’s my sister’s wedding! I’m just the designated singer.”

So, he is not Minseok’s replacement. 

Yes, Minseok did panic for a brief moment, thinking that maybe this was a very well elaborated scheme, created by his ex to recover the last piece of the wedding she would have had with Minseok and wanted to complete with her mysterious new lover, who -in Minseok’s delusional conspiracy- was no other than this Jongdae dude. 

Minseok smiles, deciding that maybe socializing with this stranger wouldn’t be that bad. “You sing?” 

“A little bit” Jongdae shrugs as he adjusts the sleeves of the jacket, looking positively comfortable under the fabric. “She just likes cheesy ballads and sometimes I do drop weep songs when we go karaoke.” 

“I’m guessing IU’s Through the night?”

“Yes!” Jongdae answers, laughing. He stretches his arms forward, doing a little twirl and ending it with a pose “How do I look?”

Minseok doesn’t know how to say that Jongdae looks pretty without blushing, so he just raises his right hand in a thumbs up, still feeling blood creep up his cheeks as Jongdae smiles. 

“I think I’ll take it,” this kind stranger says, patting the fabric over his chest with hands that seem stubby and short in an adorable way. 

Jongdae pays up using his home banking app, or rather he has to let Minseok help him pay up because he doesn’t know how to properly use the app without donating millions of won to a random account in Busan. Then, instead of saying goodbye and never meeting again, Jongdae orders a cappuccino with a large blueberry muffin and turns to Minseok to ask if he would like another coffee. Upon Minseok’s hesitant nod, Jongdae confirms their order and starts a conversation, asking what Minseok does for a living. 

It takes another hour and a half for them to stop talking, Jongdae suddenly realizing he is late for something and apologizing profusely before rejecting his hyung’s offer to pay and instead putting all the cash out himself before darting for the door. Minseok is about to stand up and leave when the waiter stops him. 

“Excuse me, the man that paid left this note for you,” and then he hands Minseok a small piece of wrinkled paper reading ‘Tuxedo Buyer Jongdae’s KakaoTalk, in case you want to have coffee again’.

“So, how was your day?” Junmyeon says, as he spreads the take out over Minseok’s coffee table, he hasn’t eaten at the proper dining table in months. It’s usual for him to crash into his friend’s house every so often, just to make sure he is not letting himself rot in the darkness of his apartment. 

“I sold the tuxedo,” Minseok answers, taking a six pack of beer from the fridge. Junmyeon’s eyebrows quirk up in interest, eyes wide open. “And…” Minseok hesitates, opening a can of Cass and downing half of it before continuing.

On his phone a message notification pops up. “Jongdae (Tuxedo)” replied to his awkward attempt to open a conversation with a totally normal and nice ‘I thought you wouldn’t text me! I’m glad you want to chat with me, hyung!’. And yes, Minseok will definitely answer something normal and not ‘you are the first person who has made me feel as if I’m not just a would-have-been husband or like the broken friend that needs some mending.’ 

Because yes, Junmyeon constantly nagging him to go out, his sister’s sweet video calling each weekend and Baekhyun’s sweet mother expressing warm love in delicious food are good and he appreciates them very much. But he also wants to feel like a normal human again, move from his own grief and the person who doesn’t want him back and maybe get wasted one night and make out with a stranger and then walk home under the bright lights of Seoul’s streets. He wants to be normal again and talking with Jongdae in the coffee shop has reminded him of how good being a normal adult interacting with other normal adults is. 

“And?” Junmyeon asks around a mouthful of dumpling. 

“And I think I made a friend.”

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

“So, to summarize,” Jongdae starts, swallowing the last of his food and pointing with his chopsticks “I think jajangmyeon is good,” makes a pause, stopping Minseok’s words with a raised chopstick “but bibimbap is superior”

Minseok scoffs “they aren’t even in the same category of food!”

“Duh,” Jongdae responds, shaking his head “superior food goes into a superior level”

Minseok tries his goddamn best to be nice and polite, but sometimes all he can do is sigh dramatically and eat a dumpling in one go, no chewing of any kind, and say “you are so infuriating.” 

The man across him smiles, eyes lighting up like he just saw a cute little animal, hand on his chest “Oh, hyung, I appreciate you too.”

“Shut up, I’ll go get the check” he answers and Jongdae’s laugh follows him as he stands up. 

It’s been exactly three months and a half since Minseok met Jongdae. What started as just a cute dude buying his tuxedo and offering his number developed into what Minseok can comfortably call a friendship. 

The first message he received from Jongdae, after their initial ‘glad you added my number!’ chat, was a photo of Jongdae clad in the black tuxedo, paired with a black tie and thick-framed glasses, standing in front of a couple with interlocked arms, leaning their heads towards each other. The accompanying text, “I did it! ‘Through The Night’ never sounded better than today! Do you think I  suited the suit?”, made Minseok smile and the absence of a piece in his life, the tuxedo that haunted his nightmares, never felt as good as in that moment. 

(He told Jongdae that he looked good, but the shoulders were too broad. Jongdae answered with a sad puppy gif and Minseok told him he was joking. He was, but still, the shoulders were too broad.)

Aside from regular texting, morning, afternoon, midnight, somehow 3am and 6am on the same night, 4pm on a sunday and 1am on a monday, because apparently Jongdae is a non-sleeping being, a few phone calls that make him anxious as all hell but ultimately make slow work days bearable, they meet in person often and that makes life a little bit funnier, more entertaining. 

They have gone out to coffee shops and tea houses, because Jongdae has the taste of a grandmother, a museum and two libraries. Minseok knows pretty much all there is to know about Jongdae, where he works (art teacher by day, art teacher but for private students by afternoon), his favourite type of coffee (anything with lots of sugar, really), his favourite colors (navy blue, sunshine yellow and soft pink), his favourite record (Night at the Opera by Queen) and his favourite book (What We Owe To Each Other, because he is a nerd like that), the movie he watches out of sympathy for the main character but despising the actual plot (Happy Death Day), the tv show he would never admit he loved (Drop Dead Diva). And, of course, Jongdae knows all the same things about Minseok as well. 

Minseok may have started to read about moral philosophy just because Jongdae seemed so interested about it and even bought him a book about Immanuel Kant when they went out to a small library full of second hand books. 

After seeing his almost full agenda, Jongdae bought him a new one, leather bound and everything, with the cute drawing of a brown and white cat napping amongst art supplies in the very first page. 

“It’s you!” Jongdae said when he pointed it out “Remember that day I went to your store and you fell asleep after I offered to help you?”

Minseok had blushed, feeling so warm and cozy. Everytime he sees the drawing he can’t help but smile. 

As Minseok asks for the check he turns around abruptly, staring at Jongdae, who scrolls down his phone before raising his head and meeting Minseok’s eye with a wink and a smile.

“Am I falling in love with him?” he says, accidentally out loud when it was meant just a panic inducing doubt.

“I sure hope you are,” the cashier answers, a short girl with two ponytails and winged eyeliner “You two look very cute.”

Minseok answers with a polite bow, handing out the cash and smiling through the heat that makes his cheeks feel like seconds away from melting point.

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

The afternoon of the following friday, Minseok invites Jongdae to his apartment. 

It’s not the first time he has been there, but for some reason it feels really weird for Minseok to have Jongdae in right now. Right now as he feels he is falling head first into a ‘God I think I love you’ kind of moment and it scares him because nothing ever has been like that for him. 

Minseok, Kim Minseok, eldest child and over all the hyung his friends always look up too, always pester with questions when they need advice, the child his father has always been so proud of, the one who would be the first Kim in their family to get married and settle down with a nice lady with a wonderful job. That Minseok was never been the type of man to fall in love quickly. Develop crushes? Sure, but everyone looks at someone in the bus and thinks ‘wow, what a beautiful person!’. But love, real, deafening love, the type that has you at 2am answering texts coming with silly facebook memes with a big smile, that didn’t happen to him often. 

In fact, the more he thinks about it, the more Minseok thinks his former fianceé was the first person he ever felt was his love, was  _ his _ . Sohee had been his high school crush for the longest time, then they became friends and it had taken him months to feel like something was wrong with them, with being just friends, and even more months to finally ask her out on a date. By the time he proposed, they had been dating for nearly three years and felt that it was the time to settle down. 

Evidently she didn’t feel the same, but Minseok is too stumped with his current mental dilemma to worry about the former one. 

In the end, he is pretty sure that the Minseok he used to be, uptight and having a protocol for romance, is currently hiding in a corner with tear tracks down his cheeks, pointing with a shaky finger to a framed picture of Jongdae’s smile. 

It’s a tough challenge to open the door and pretend the smile in front of him isn’t disarming, framed by the hood of his yellow hoodie because it’s windy outside. 

“Hyung, I brought food!” he says, showing the two kraft paper bags tightly wrapped by his arms. 

Jongdae evidently knows Minseok as well as Minseok knows him, because aside from groceries to make a good home-cooked dinner, he also brought mocha bread, handing it to his host with a sly smile and a wink.

But Jongdae doesn’t know something and it’s eating Minseok alive. 

“The tuxedo,” he blurts out, interrupting Jongdae’s work anecdote. “The tuxedo I sold you-”

“Oh, it’s in my closet!” Jongdae says, smiling broadly “Man, if I’d known we would become friends I would just have borrowed it.” He eats his jajangmyeon with “I can give it back if you miss it, Hyung”

“No,” Minseok hastens to say, making Jongdae’s eyes blow wide. “I’m sorry, it’s just… I was going to marry… with that tuxedo”

Jongdae’s right eyebrow twitches upwards, questioning and confused. “Oh,” it’s all that comes out of his mouth. 

There’s a pause, a moment of silence that feels like a thousand years. 

“Do you want to go to the movies on wednesday?” Jongdae asks, downing his glass of coke in a second “I heard there is a new action flick and I think you’d be into it.”

“You don’t… you care about my non-wedding?”

Jongdae shrugs, “I mean, it’s not a good memory if you are so eager to never again see the tuxedo you would have used. It’s ok, man”

“I think I love you,” Minseok hears himself speak, plenty sure that his functioning brain has been replaced by that of a talking frog. And he is about to panic, apologize and flee to the bathroom when Jongdae laughs, his deep rolling laugh that rumbles deep inside Minseok’s chest. 

“I’m glad you do, hyung,” Jongdae’s cheeks turn a darker shade of pink, his right hand rising to scratch the nape of his neck as he speaks, looking at Minseok through his long lashes, chin tucked and lips twitching into a smile, “I think I love you too.”

“Ok,” Minseok answers, because he is a rational human being, capable of thought processing, whose hand definitely doesn’t tremble when he goes to pick his glass of water, who doesn’t feel his face heat when Jongdae laughs at him and volunteers to find him a straw. 

And, obviously, Minseok is a good and normal adult who can’t properly process his emotions and actions, who reacts normally when Jongdae leans forward to kiss his cheek before he darts out of the door with a big smile and a wave, ready to take the bus and head to his own home. 

Minseok totally doesn’t lose his cool and screams into a pillow before heading to bed, texting Junmyeon to let him know that ‘shit just got real’. 

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

Falling in love after a rough break up is not easy. It feels like wave after wave of water crashing on the shore, like watching the ocean view grow wider and wider. It’s terrifying for a couple of hours, days, until your brain makes peace with the water and reminds your soul that this is paradise, everything is well. No matter how high the sea gets.

You can walk out of paradise if it turns to be hell, you have that choice. Minseok reminds himself that being left at the altar doesn’t mean that he is not loveable. Before that his girlfriend loved him. His family loved him before the failed wedding and still loves him afterwards.

So it’s not unreal, even if sometimes it feels as such, to have Jongdae at arms reach and get a shiny smile in return whenever their eyes meet.

It does feel unreal to walk with Jongdae down the halls of an art exhibition and encounter Baekhyun. It’s even more unreal the fact that the kid’s immediate reaction is to yell ‘Professor Kim!’ and run to greet Jongdae. 

“Ah, Baekhyun-ah!” Jongdae responds, ruffling the kids' hair “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I…” he turns around and a few steps away is a girl with a dress splattered with hundreds of beautiful daisies. “This is, my girlfriend, Taeyeon”

“Hi, Mr Kim,” she says, with a shy smile. 

“Kim Taeyeon?” Jongdae says in mock disbelief “As in Changmin’s most talented singing student Kim Taeyeon?”

The girl blushes, nodding softly, hand intertwined with her boyfriend. 

“I didn’t know you were dating Minseok hyung!” Baekhyun’s mouth opens wide, staring at the pair of them with a big smile. 

“You know him?” Jongdae asks, now truly in disbelief 

“Yes! I always buy from his store, my mom’s house is across the street”

When Jongdae turns to look at him, Minseok simply shrugs, “The world is tiny.”

After a few more words and a lot of polite goodbyes, Minseok and Jongdae are walking again. Slow, because Jongdae takes his sweet time with each work of art and it makes Minseok so mad because he likes art, he sells art supplies for heaven’s sake, but it’s still so annoying to spend ages in front of a painting that it’s just a couple dressed in hanbok in front of a lake or a pond. 

“It feels peaceful, doesn’t it?” Jongdae says, staring at the oil-painted image “That opportunity to be still with a person you like and watch the world for a few moments, letting nature move away. That feels like peace, don’t you think?” He turns to Minseok with a soft, almost tentative smile “Hyung, do you want to watch the sunset with me?”

Minseok nods, hesitant to speak, following the man like a starving kit would follow a chef with hands full of salmon. It’s not until they reach the garden, with the sky colored in the shades of dusk, that Minseok dares to speak. 

“Are we dating?” he asks, always blunt as a knife.

Jongdae, sitting by his side on the steel bench, chokes on his barely-bought milkshake. It’s not out of disgust or rejection, as Minseok feared, but rather because laughter got in the way of his drink. 

“Hyung, we have been holding hands for an hour now and you ask me if we are dating?” Jongdae’s smile is so fond and precious as Minseok dabs with tissues the mess of spilled drink over Jongdae’s hoodie. 

“I…” Minseok sighs, exasperated, throwing the used tissues in the garbage bin and sitting back on the bench with brows furrowed “It’s just that Baekhyun already thinks we are dating but we haven’t even kissed, how is that da-”

His words die out, interrupted by the pressing of Jongdae’s slightly chapped lips against his own. And then it’s gone, like the flutter of a butterfly’s colorful wings, and Minseok feels disappointed on himself for just taking it, like a stupid statue. 

“There, we kissed,” Jongdae announces, a proud smile on his serifed lips. He places a hand on Minseok’s shoulder, smoothing the fabric of his white shirt with a sickenly sweet smile “Don’t overthink it, hyung.”

Obviously, Minseok doesn’t overthink it, he is just stammering like a fool until Jongdae laughs and kisses him again. This time, however, Minseok hastens to respond in cue, holding Jongdae’s shoulders and moving his lips eagerly, tongue darting to probe past the seam of those wonderful lips. 

“Hyung!” Jongdae whines when they part, pushing him softly “You can’t do that here!”

“Why not?” he asks, eyebrows quipped upwards in genuine concern. Did he do something wrong? 

“Because…” Jongdae mutters, hands tightly clasped around Minseok’s biceps, hesitant to let go. And Minseok is plenty sure he did something awful. But Jongdae’s cherry colored cheeks, the nervous lick of his lower lip and the glances he throws around them gives away that he is more concerned of being seen than of Minseok doing something terribly offensive to him. “Because I might want to… oh God, this is so embarrassing”

“Why is it embarrassing?” Minseok probes further, leaning into Jongdae’s personal smile with a devilish grin “Do we have to have the talk? About the birds and the bees?”

“Oh, you are infuriating!” Jongdae whines, playfully hitting his date.

“Aw, Dae” Minseok stretches his hand, pretending to brush a lock of hair away from Jongdae’s face “I like you too.”

They kiss some more on their way home. Twice on the bus stop, once in the bus seats -no further kisses there because an old lady is staring at them with a mean look and perhaps PDA should be reserved for spaces with no judging people- and three times more at the doorstep of Jongdae’s apartment.

“You didn’t have to walk me home,” he says, fingers lingering in Minseok’s open palm, hesitant to fully let him go. 

“Of course I did!” Minseok states, an offended expression gracing his features “What kind of hyung would I be if I didn’t make sure my dongsaeng is safe in his home.”

Jongdae laughs, sound gradually dying as a funny expression is born in his face. It’s cute, chin ducked, the corners of his lips quipped upwards -more than usual-, cheeks pink, eyes downcast, balancing his weight from the ball of his feet to the tippy top of his white shoes.

“I don’t think I love you, hyung” he says a moment later and Minseok’s heart stops all together, then skips a few beats, hearing Jongdae’s tenor voice rise with his eyes to say: “I’m plenty sure I love you.”

“I’m sure too,” Minseok is quick to say, hand threatening to squeeze the blood of Jongdae’s fingers, wrapping around them before he can retrieve them. “I’m very sure of it.”

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

Minseok meets Jongdae’s friends on September 21st, Jongdae’s birthday and the start of autumn. 

He shows up at the apartment at 8pm sharp, accompanied by Junmyeon because Jongdae insists on meeting him, unaware that Minseok’s best friend is not as socially awkward as Minseok is. 

“Sehun?!” said best friend screams when the first of Jongdae’s guests crosses the front door. 

“Junmyeon hyung!” the tall boy answers, leaping to hug Junmyeon with long lanky limbs. 

And for the rest of evening, or at least the following 35 minutes that takes for the entirety of Jongdae’s small entourage of friends to arrive, Minseok stays in the kitchen, giving all the greetings he is due to give and smiling politely, watching as Junmyeon demonstrates he knows basically everyone in the city. 

It makes sense for a lawyer to know his first most famous client, actress Bae Joohyun who sued a bunch of anti-fans for defamation, and maybe it makes sense to know a fellow lawyer, Oh Sehun, and another kick-boxing dude, Do Kyungsoo, but how the fuck does he know ballet-prodigee Kim Jongin? 

And how does Jongdae know all of them?

“Oh, Joohyun was my high school classmate,” Jongdae explains when Minseok asks, a little bit envious of the friendships around him “And well, Seulgi is her make-up artist slash girlfriend. Sehun was my dad’s lawyer when he got injured in the workplace and his boss refused to play. Jongin is Seulgi’s cousin, we met on Joohyun's birthday, and Kyungsoo is actually my neighbour!”

Minseok is selfishly happy that at least one person in the room is a stranger to Junmyeon. 

“Zhang Yixing” he introduces himself with a polite bow “I work with Jongdae in the art school”

And Minseok is both selfishly and genuinely happy to see that Junmyeon suddenly has no eyes for anyone of these people that he knows from a long time ago, and only focuses his attention on Yixing and his accented korean. 

Even if Junmyeon hadn’t forgotten he had friends and instead developed a fixation for the cute chinese dude, Minseok still wouldn’t have felt left out. Not only Jongdae does the most to include his boyfriend (he introduced him as such and Minseok blushed madly because he wasn’t sure if that was their official tag) in every conversation and every game, but Jongdae’s friends do their best to get to know him. 

“Just so you know,” Joohyun starts, two tequilas on her bloodstream but steady finger when she points at him “I know karate. Kyungsoo wouldn’t hurt you because he is too soft, but me?” she hits her chest with an open hand twice “I am a beast and Jongdae is my baby”

“I’m a few months younger than you, noona,” the baby complains in aegyo. 

“Still!” she screams, grabbing Jongdae’s cheeks and stretching them forcefully “You are my baby!”

“Noona!” Jongdae whines and she lets go with a giggle, falling to the arms of her girlfriend with a big smile on her lips. 

“Your friends are very nice,” Minseok confesses, hours later, when everyone but himself has left, washing the dishes and handing the clean ones to Jongdae, “I like them.”

“I like your friend too, Seok” Jongdae answers, drying the plate with a circular motion, eyes fixated on Minseok “Junmyeon is very nice, he is invited to the wedding.”

Minseok’s heart skips a beat, caught in the space between past and present, almost certain he heard the same words from Sohee’s lips, two and a half years ago. 

“Seok?” Jongdae’s voice tethers him back to reality, dragging him from his fear room slowly and steadily, “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he lies, bullshitting his way through this moment of panic with a smile “I’m just very tired.”

“Then we can do the washing in the morning, let’s go to beeed.”

And even if Jongdae’s hands didn’t tug on Minseok’s sleeve, he still would have followed him to his room, entirely enticed by the sweet kisses those curled up lips deliver so expertly. 

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

“So, Jongdae said the word ‘wedding’” Junmyeon draws the air quotes with a movement of his bottle of beer “and you panicked?”

Minseok thinks that a bbq restaurant is not the most optimal place to discuss relationship trauma, but Junmyeon’s lunch won’t last forever. 

“Pretty much, yes” he answers, biting down on his burger before he panics about this too and flees. 

Junmyeon guffaws, a man two tables away stares at them weird. 

“That’s rough buddy” the man says, taking a swig of his beer and giggling silently.

“Don’t ‘Sokka’ me, this is serious” Minseok answers, kicking him under the table

“I know, I know, sorry” Junmyeon puts down his beer and smiles, shrugging “It’s just that I don’t think is too big of a deal”

“What? How is it not big?” Minseok would punch him if they weren’t in the middle of a respectable food establishment. Lucky man, if they were in the wild west he could punch him anyway. 

“Well, for one you told Jongdae of what happened, didn’t you?” Minseok nods, Junmyeon tilts his head to the side “on the other hand, you have been dating for what, a year now?” Junmyeon shakes his head with a funny expression on his face, lips pursed and eyebrows quipped in the middle “it’s not weird for couples to joke about weddings, even if they never plan to get married. Maybe Jongdae just meant that I’m a cool dude who he wants to hang out with and regrets not meeting before he met you because he would totally date me” Minseok hits him in the arm, making Junmyeon wince and raise his arms, pleading for peace “I’m just saying, let it go. Don’t overthink it, hyung.”

_ Don’t overthink it, Minseok. It's nothing. _

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

Minseok dreams of marrying Jongdae. Multiple times. 

In all his dreams, Jongdae runs away before reaching the altar. 

Even if Minseok tied him down, which happened twice in a row, Jongdae would find a way to run.

It’s a worse nightmare than any demon clown could have possibly caused.

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

It’s a particularly cold Chuseok weekend and it gives people the opportunity to huddle together and eat as much as they can. 

Jongdae’s family is as nice as Jongdae and Minseok’s sister takes in stride the invitation to a joint family meal in a nice hole-in-the-wall ramen restaurant. Their parents are away in Guri so it’s not an option to bring them over. Maybe for New Year’s he could take Jongdae to his childhood home. 

The Kim-Kim meeting goes swiftly, trading Jongdae’s childhood anecdotes (falling from a tree and breaking a leg because he swore he could fly) for Minseok’s own tales of youth (yes, he did cut his sister’s long beautiful hair once because he wanted to see it grow back. In his defense, he was seven.), and enjoying delicious meal after delicious meal, ending with a gruesome debt that they pay together. 

“Paying up the wedding is surely going to be less expensive than this meal!” Jongdae’s father jokes, elbowing his son in the ribs, who stares at Minseok with an odd smile. Minseok wonders just what expression he is making that causes his sister to elbow him so hard that he feels his lungs emptying almost instantly. 

The two families part outside of the restaurant, trading small gifts and gentle farewells, Minseok’s sister whisper-shouting that he needs ‘to be more kind with your poor boy!’ and patting his shoulder before going to hug said boy and take a cab back to his apartment, where she is staying for the weekend. 

“I’m sorry,” both of them say at the same time, “You’ve got nothing to say sorry for!” they say in unison again, laughing at their coincidence.

“My dad shouldn’t have said that,” Jongdae shakes his head, sighing deeply “I know that weddings are not a happy topic for you and I promise I will talk to him so he doesn’t mention it again.”

“It’s okay,” Minseok assures him, taking his hand and squeezing it tightly. “Let’s go to your apartment, my sister snores” Jongdae’s guffaw echoes through the bustling streets of Seoul.

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

Jongdae’s apartment always feels like a den, in the coziest, nicest way one can say that. It’s pretty and comfortable, from the neatly organized room -courtesy of Minseok who keeps forcing Jongdae to perform weekly cleanings- with its king sized bed and brick-red comforter with two armchairs in front of a small coffee table, an easel by the window, right by an assortment of art supplies sitting in two shelves. 

Minseok prefers to spend most of their time in his house, his apartment always more comfortable, always more welcoming. So he tends to crash by anytime he can, anytime Jongdae is free. And that happens often, because Jongdae tends to make room in his schedule for Minseok’s rambunctious ambushes, letting him chat about anything and everything. 

Over the course of their year and a half relationship, Minseok has nurtured the two shelves by Jongdae’s window to the point that their contents spill out like a fountain. It feels nice to see them in use, thick brush moving across the canvas with ease, Jongdae in front of the easel wearing nothing but Minseok’s orange shirt, Minseok drinking coffee in the armchair close by, watching as the city becomes a masterpiece in the hands of a true artist.

“Should I give you this?” Jongdae asks as he signs the painting. Minseok raises a questioning brow when the artist turns to him. The artist in turn shrugs, “I mean, you basically live in my house. If I gave it to you, you’d see it once a month.”

“Maybe that would give me a reason to go back to my apartment.”

“No!” Jongdae whines, launching himself to the arms of his beloved, letting his body fall over Minseok’s lap “I don’t want you to leave”

Minseok is not used to this type of coexistence. Sohee wanted to live in separate houses until they got married, even if they already had sex before, but she wanted to keep that bit of traditionalism and he happily indulged, comfortable in his own space. But the more he spends his days in Jongdae’s home, the more he resents being away in his little cave. 

Again, Jongdae’s apartment is a den made so the cold winter days are nothing but a mild haze seen through fogged up windows, wrapped in blanket upon blanket, drinking hot cocoa, indulging in sweet kisses and passionate evenings. Jongdae’s smile is the most beautiful sunrise, the most amazing sunset, and his chest always feels warm like an electric radiator. 

Minseok thinks there is something very wild, very stupid about what he is going to ask. But only the brave gain paradise, so he prepares his stance and jumps into the water. 

“Should we move together then?”

“Here?” Jongdae asks, eyes wide, smile unfaltering “Isn’t it too small for the both of us?”

Minseok shrugs, “I’m sure we can make it work. But only if you want, I don’t intend to be bothering in your personal space and I can stop coming over if you don’t want me to-” 

Jongdae, always wise and quick, stops his panicked rambles with a kiss.

“Don’t overthink it,” he says, kissing the tip of Minseok’s nose with a smile “You already have a tooth brush and a set of baby blue towels here, you big baby, this is your house now.” Jongdae stands up, picking his phone from the coffee table and typing away. “I’ll get you registered so the owner will give you a key, then I’ll help you pack your stack of neatly folded sportswear and we’ll be housemates.” 

“Only housemates?” Minseok pouts, tucking his chin so he looks at Jongdae through his lashes. 

Jongdae lols his head from side to side, “Let’s call it housemates with benefits.”

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

For their second anniversary, Minseok organizes a candle lit dinner on the rooftop of the apartment building. He did ask for it properly, getting permission from the proprietary and assistance from one of his daughters in setting up the place. He is a good tennant and a very clean one, ready to clean the shit of the rooftop once he is done. 

“I hate when I can’t see,” Jongdae complains, hand tightly gripping Minseok’s as he climbs the stairs, a hesitant step following an even more hesitant step. 

“I know, just wait a bit more,” Minseok begs, dragging Jongdae the very last steps before taking off his blindfold and smiling at the reaction he gets.

“I love you,” Jongdae gasps, turning to kiss his besotted boyfriend. 

Minseok didn’t just prepare a rooftop candle lit dinner, oh no, no! He also made sure it was very much a Jongdae dinner. On opposite sides of a picnic table -that he borrowed from Junmyeon-, he set two small easels with identical sets of watercolors and brushes. 

He had asked Jongdae which easels he liked the most, disguised as ordering new products for the store. And his boyfriend, being the soft and wonderful creature that he is, chose a brand with a fox logo, engraved in the wood of the easel. Minseok agreed with him that it was a wonderful choice and ordered two matching easels.

And so, he made an artist’s dinner, with actual food sitting by the side of the art tools in the form of kimbap, and the task is to paint each other while they dine. Jongdae cries through it all, and Minseok tells him his painting is going to be the superior watercolor because he is nurturing it with his very own water. Jongdae smacks the back of his hand, but he is laughing anyway. 

Apparently a life of selling paint brushes doesn’t magically grant you the ability to know how to use one, Minseok is shocked and upset. Still, Jongdae smiles fondly at the awfully made portrait of his face and Minseok’s mistake of art gets to hang next to Jongdae’s beautifully detailed depiction of Minseok’s furrowed brows as he desperately tries to blend colors. 

They hang side by side, right above the painting of the city Jongdae made, a few inches away from the photographs they took together in the photobooth of a theme park during the summer, centered in the pretty cobalt blue wall of their living room. 

Minseok still has a hard time calling the apartment his, but it feels more of a home than any other place he has been living in since he moved out of his parents’ Guri house. And the night of their second anniversary it feels more home than usual, walking down the stairs with still wet paintings in their hands and two bags of mixed art supplies and dirty cutlery, coming to a dimly lit apartment, the table lamp of the living room turned out and glowing in pale orange shades.

Jongdae didn’t hang their work that night, too busy nailing someone else to the wall, but made a point to wake up early and place them in their forever home as dawn tinted the sky in shades of pink.

It was the first time in two years that Minseok woke up to an empty bed. 

The panic and the subsequent relief when he saw Jongdae walk back into the room and plop in their bed with a contented hum, made him realise just how much he loved Jongdae, just how badly he wanted to spend the rest of his life by his side, and how maybe thinking of weddings isn’t so bad when you dream of waking up together during a long honeymoon, maybe in Jeju.

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

“Hyung, I swear to God, if you are cheating-”

“Junmyeon, the fact you suck at Monopoly doesn’t mean the winner is cheating,” Minseok defends. 

Minseok is not the only one who loves Jongdae’s- their apartment. Everyone in their now thoroughly linked friend group does. 

Junmyeon, who totally doesn’t have a hand on Yixing’s knee, who in return doesn’t rest his chin on Junmyeon’s shoulder as he watches the game with mild interest, was the first one to suggest monthly friend gatherings in the cosy apartment. 

Joohyun, currently enjoying the wonders of Minseok’s birthday gift, a cocktail mixer, quickly jumped unto the opportunity to hang out more frequently with her favourite dongsaengs and even invited some friends of hers to join the rooster, Minho, a funny actor who was Joohyun’s former co-star in a famous drama, Hyojung, Joohyun’s fitness instructor, and her girlfriend, Yoona, Joohyun’s costume designer. 

“Hyung, you are cheating!” Jongdae’s whine hits two pitches higher than usual so Minseok knows he is playing.

“Et tu, Dae?” he responds, holding Jongdae’s hand tightly and fake crying.

“Ugh, so dramatic,” Sehun complains, grabbing the dice from his hands and throwing it, landing on a sweet six and buying a middle-class house. 

Monopoly hour comes to an end when Jongdae buys the most expensive houses, installs two hotels and makes everyone pay a crap ton of money for passing through. Naturally, a fight ensues over who the hell charges so high for walking through a neighbourhood. It all ends with Jongdae collecting the small play pieces while Junmyeon stacks the bills in a corner, Yixing laughing at their dismay over ‘a few pieces of fake money and fake houses’. 

Then they sit around a table, agreeing to never speak of the horrors they yelled at each other through the course of the vicious real estate game, Joohyun and Seulgi volunteering to prepare some sweet cocktails, not before confirming no one is driving home, while the rest serve the food. 

“You are not invited to the wedding,” Minseok says, index finger pointed at Junmyeon, who laughs. 

“I didn’t even want to go to your stupid wedding,” he mocks, sticking his tongue out. 

“Oh, but I wanted to go,” Yixing pouts and Junmyeon blushes when the sweet dimpled chinese man leans over his shoulder, batting his eyes innocently. 

“Xing, you are invited, don’t worry,” Minseok assures him, swallowing his piece of kimbap with a big smile “It’s him who will be banned from the ceremony”

“Ha, you didn’t ban me from the party!” Junmyeon’s laugh is uproarious, finishing his expertly prepared Manhattan with a flourish “Watch me get drunk and steal all the cake!”

Minseok’s face distorts into a shape of pretend shock and dismay “You wouldn’t dare!” 

They bicker back and forth for a while, Joohyun inserting herself in the conversation, assuring that neither are allowed into the wedding and she is going to celebrate Jongdae’s wedding by proxy, using Yixing as a stand in for Minseok, and Seulgi as a stand it for Best Man Junmyeon. Seulgi says she would look good in a suit and Jongin asks if he can wear a bridesmaid dress. Fairy Godmother Joohyun allows it, blessing her godson with a new shot of Tequila.

Jongdae is strangely silent after everyone else leaves, methodically washing the dishes with brow furrowed and lips tightly pressed into a line. Minseok, who by now has learnt how to read Jongdae’s signals and the way to help him get over a bad mood, hugs him from behind, resting his chin over his shoulder, pressing a quick kiss to the skin under his ear. 

“What’s wrong?” he asks, right hand running circles on Jongdae’s side “You are too quiet.”

“Oh, it’s nothing, hyung,” Jongdae lies through his teeth. Minseok would know, has seen him play impostor in Among Us, he sucks at pretending not to be the one who is killing people. 

“Ok, I know you are lying” Minseok responds, but instead of pressing for an answer, he lets go of Jongdae, patting his ass before walking away “Whenever you want to tell me, I’m more than willing to listen.”

It’s right before they get into the bed when Jongdae finally speaks.

“Do you mean it?”

The clock reads 3:15am and the silence of the apartment makes the statement all the more eerie. 

“Mean… what?” the elder asks, sticking his head from the bathroom, toothbrush trapped between his lips.

“The thing of… you know” Jongdae tilts his head from side to side, voice an octave lower than usual, raspy and low “About a… a wedding…?” 

“Oh,” Minseok turns back to the sink, spitting out a mouthful of toothpaste and rising with lots of water. When he raises his head the mirror is asking the same question Jongdae did. 

Did he mean it? Did he really mean it when he said something about a wedding? Do his dreams about matching suits and bouquets of red flowers, about a church full of people, about his brother-from-another-mother Junmyeon handing him the rings and crying when Jongdae wears a simple but engraved golden band around his ring finger, mean something?

He slides into bed, turning off the bedside table lamp, and setting his arms around Jongdae’s lithe figure, pressing a quick kiss to his lips before leaning back, sighing softly. 

“I did” he mutters, afraid that if he speaks it too loud the words will lose their meaning, their weight “I mean it, I would love to marry you.” 

"You would?” Jongdae’s voice is equally as low, twice as precious.

Minseok nods, sure that Jongdae can sense it. 

“I would love it, too,” his boyfriend says and Minseok kisses him fully before setting his head against the pillow comfortably and closing his eyes, very aware of Jongdae’s arms holding him just a little bit tighter than usual. 

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

Baekhyun is graduating from Arts School. 

He is eighteen, his hair is slicked to the side and with his fancy black suit and thick soled patent leather shoes he looks taller than usual. It’s a boy turning into a man and everyone who knows him can see he’s going to be a damn good man. 

The boy is presenting his very first exhibition, to the pride of both his mother and his teacher, and he makes time to walk both of them through the gallery, showing them his favourite pieces, including a large landscape featuring a dark haired girl draped in a sunflower dress who may or may not be inspired in his still girlfriend, now a newly debuted soloist singer. 

Jongdae left Minseok in the food section, choosing between small pieces of cheese and small pieces of chicken, as he followed the little prodigee around the place. Minseok is fine, he has been alone before. The gallery is full of people but that doesn’t mean he will get lost, he’s just going to wander around, acting like the rest of the pretentious art-snobs around him and ask for the price of one or two paintings with a dismissive gesture when he hears a grandiose amount of money that he definitely does not have. 

Around the center piece, three connected canvases depicting the passage of time through the decay of a forest and it’s subsequent rebirth from a single fallen tree branch, what Minseok calls a fancier and more eloquent remake of the three faces of time portraits, a female voice calls his name.

“Kim Minseok?” the tone of disbelief makes him turn, coming to face a familiar face. 

“Sohee?” he asks in return, smiling gently. 

“Wow, I…” she smiles wide, walking a step closer to him “I didn’t expect to see you here”

“Same to you,” Minseok responds, taking a swig of his champagne.

“It’s been so long!” Sohee muses, “too long, Min...”

“Minseok!” Jongdae’s voice pierces through the small bubble of weirdness, “there you are, Seokkie!” he approaches him with a wide and bright smile, shining like the summer sun “Come on, you are going to miss Baekhyun’s speech!” the smile falters, turning to a small ‘o’ when he notices the girl “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know I was interrupting”

“Don’t worry, you are not interrupting,” Minseok assures, grabbing his hand “Dae, This is Ahn Sohee. Sohee, this is Jongdae, my husband.”

Sohee gapes, then bows in front of Jongdae, a gentle smile on her lips as she rises. 

“I didn’t know you were married” she says, eyes wide open.

“We married last year,” Jongdae nods, griping Minseok’s hand tighter.

“Congratulations then” Sohee bows softly, “It was good to see you, Minseok. I’m glad you are happy.”

“I’m glad too, good to see you, Sohee,” he smiles to her, bidding her goodbye with one last bow before turning to his husband and pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. He is glad things turned out this way.

“Hyung?” Jongdae whispers when the woman has walked away “Was that  _ the  _ Sohee?” With Minseok’s nod he hums, “Well, she looks just like you… are you related?”

“Jongdae!” Minseok says in disbelief, caught in between laughter and genuine shock. “God, you are so infuriating. I love you so much.”

“I love you too, hyung!” Jongdae retaliates, guiding him through the crowds, both smiling like fools when they reach the small stage where Baekhyun is set to deliver his speech, hands clasped in each other’s tight grasp, this silent promise of never letting go a faint echo of the words so sincerely spoken at their wedding ceremony.

═════════•°• ⧑⧓⧒ •°•═════════

**Author's Note:**

> at first this was going to be a foxdae/kittyseok fic, but I am a coward.  
> maybe i'll try that for another story.  
> comments and kudos are always appreciated <3


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